


How Many Idiots Does It Take To Ruin Everything?

by orphan_account



Series: Questions We Ask Ourselves [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Deaf Chara, Minor Character Death, Mute Frisk, Non-Binary Chara, Other, Past Relationship(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 10:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6851491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the accident, Frisk had tried to comfort them. They had wrapped their arms around Chara, pressed their head against their shoulder, and made soft noises that barely came close to words. At first, the comfort felt nice. After a few months, it felt patronising. And one day, when Frisk tried to wipe their tears away for them, Chara snapped. </p><p><em>"What the fuck is wrong with you? Why won't you talk?"</em> They had demanded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Many Idiots Does It Take To Ruin Everything?

**Author's Note:**

> Everybody is OOC and I regret everything.

It's afternoon and they're walking fast, weaving their way through the crowd of people on the sidewalk, knowing their steps so well that they don't even need to look up. They know exactly where they're going- they've walked this path a thousand times before. 

"Watch it, kid!" They walk headfirst into the girl that lives downstairs- the dark skinned one with the bright red hair and the spear stuck through her front door because of an "accident" that occurred the other day. "Where you rushing off to? Got somewhere to be?" 

Chara scowls. "What's it to you?" 

"I'm your neighbour now. That means I'm obliged to both call the cops if I hear you being murdered upstairs and acknowledge you daily, despite the fact I don't really like you." The woman narrows her eyes- Undyne is her name?- and steps around them, "You better not be fucking with anyone today. Don't lay a finger on Alphys, you hear me?" 

Chara considers making a pun about not hearing her. They change their mind. That was the old them, the young and foolish them that couldn't do anything right. The new them is determined, solid, reckless. The new them is impenetrable. 

"Which one is Alphys? The stuttering, flapping loser that lives downstairs?" Chara says, harshly, mimicking the nervous scientist perfectly, "The o-one that t-ta-talks like th-this?" 

Undyne looks as if she wants to punch them. "That's enough. Scram." 

Chara decides not to push their luck this time. They've got somewhere to be. They can feel Undyne's eyes burning into their back as they continue down the street, travelling further and further from the building. 

For years now, they've been visiting the graveyard every few weeks- every few days when they've been feeling exceptionally lonely- and it's become a sort of tradition for Chara. They like to sit at the graveside and talk about whatever's bothering them. The grave listens silently, the words carved into it staring at them, and doesn't offer solutions. But it's nice to be heard. 

They push the gate to the graveyard open and step inside, closing it carefully. Clasping the flowers they bought at the stand on the way here between their hands, they follow the path deeper and deeper into the graveyard. They know the way. They know the grave. 

When they finally step in front of the grave, their eyes trailing over the dates and kind words, they have to swallow hard to stop themself losing their shit right there and then. 

"Asriel..." Chara barely breathes. The bright yellow of the flowers they're holding blurs in front of their eyes, melting into a pool of sunshine colours, before they realise that it's because they're tearing up. Hey... That hasn't happened in a long time. They rub their eyes furiously with the sleeve of their jacket, glancing around quickly to make sure nobody saw. Themselves aside, the graveyard is entirely deserted. They have no reason to worry. 

"It's been a few weeks now." They drop to their knees in front of the grave and pick up the dying flowers leftover from last time, tossing them aside for now. Carefully, they replace them with the brighter, newer flowers. The flowers that Asriel always loved. If they cast their mind back, Chara can remember their friend lying in the sun patiently while Chara threaded the flowers through his hair. They talked, contently, and looked at the sky. 

Frisk talked a lot, picking at blades of grass and knotting them together. 

"If you've been wondering about Frisk... I didn't mean to scare you last time. I was just pissed, I would never actually do anything that could ever put them in danger... Not again." Chara arranges the flowers neatly, thumbing the petals thoughtfully, "I'm really sorry about that day. Anyway, nothing's changed between me and Frisk. They still hate me." 

They swear the wind is whispering to them, changing directions so that it blows their hair in their face. With an sigh, they push their hair back and tuck the loose strands behind their ears. It's useless- it just falls in their eyes again. Before, they had always clipped their hair back to show everybody how fearless and grinning they were. After the accident, they grew it out and hid their face behind their hair, hiding themselves away from the world. 

They had moped for a long time after Asriel's death before they started to really blame themselves, realising how much of that unfortunate day had been their fault. And then, Chara had started to feel this strange kind of anger boiling inside of them. They were angry. Asriel didn't deserve to die, they shouldn't have let him die. And they began to take out the anger that they felt for themselves out on other people. Ever since Asriel passed away in the hospital bed, with Chara at his side, they have been a ticking time bomb. Any joke, any comment, any action could send them from zero to a hundred in seconds. 

Maybe that's why they felt the need to keep themselves isolated. So they didn't hurt anyone. 

"I think they're mad because I pulled that prank on them.... It didn't really turn out to be as funny as I thought it would. In retrospect, it was just mean." Chara sighs, "What's new with you? Still dead as a doorknob, down there?" 

Silence. The rustle of grass in the wind. 

After the accident, Frisk had tried to comfort them. They had wrapped their arms around Chara, pressed their head against their shoulder, and made soft noises that barely came close to words. At first, the comfort felt nice. After a few months, it felt patronising. And one day, when Frisk tried to wipe their tears away for them, Chara snapped. 

_"What the fuck is wrong with you? Why won't you talk?"_ They had demanded. 

Frisk had stopped talking after the accident. They looked hurt at Chara's words. 

That's when Chara pushed them away, hard, and Frisk had stumbled backwards. They had hit the wall, smacking their head against it, and tears had filled their eyes. That was the day that Chara realised they couldn't live with Frisk anymore. They'd packed up and left the next day, without even saying goodbye, and began a life on the run. They stayed where they could, hitched rides where they could, but in the end, they always came back to Frisk. Even when they didn't intend to. Frisk came to rescue them and each time, Chara was humiliated. And their sibling was so kind that they just hated them more. 

And Frisk still hadn't spoken a single word to them since. Chara tried not to take it personally but it was hard not to. 

Especially when they remembered the night of Asriel's accident- they had just been kids and they all knew they shouldn't have climbed so far up the mountain that day but none of them realised until it was too late. Not until Asriel had fallen down and was laying crumpled in the flowers that he loved so much. Frisk had stumbled after him, on some heroic quest, and nearly launched themself headfirst off the ledge in an attempt to reach him. They slipped, held on by their fingertips, and screamed for Chara to help them. Chara had turned and run like a coward back home, begging for somebody to help, and left Frisk holding on for their life. 

Chara blamed themself for the events that followed; Asriel's severe injuries, followed by his death; Frisk's silence and the guilt that stared Chara in the face every time they saw them; Chara spinning out of control. They blamed themself. They got angry. And now, they came to Asriel's grave at least once a month to stare at the flowers and wish for a different path. 

_"Why won't you talk?"_

They wished they could take everything back. But it's too late. What's done is done. 

"I have to get going." Chara gets to their feet and brushes themselves off, touching the edge of the grave gingerly like it's going to bite them, before turning away. They fold their arms across their chest, duck back behind their hair, and bury their feelings deep inside. The anger, the guilt, all of it. They shut it down for now and decide that they need to get out of town. 

Frisk doesn't want them back anyway. 

The streets are empty at this time of knight but Chara isn't afraid- they've walked the night many times before, rarely armed, and no harm has ever come to them. Anybody that has ever dared come near them got what was coming to them. Chara is tough, Chara is determined. They've won fights without so much as a scratch on them before. They cross the street to walk under the dim streetlights anyway, keeping their eyes on the sidewalk. 

Determined not to go back to Frisk, they walk the streets for hours. Their fingers creep into their pocket, squeezing the life out of the flower they picked out of the grass earlier. When they withdraw their hand, their fingertips are stained grass green and pollen yellow. They wipe their hand on their shorts and begin to think about where they're going to go. It's already beginning to rain, so they might as well figure out where they're going to shelter for tonight. Somewhere they haven't been before- somewhere where they won't be recognised. 

The worst thing about this city is that they keep bumping into people that know them. People that offer looks of pity because hey, isn't that the Chara kid who lost their best friend and their old life in one go? Chara doesn't want their pity. 

The rain stops dripping and begins to pour, clinging to their eyelashes and their bangs so that they can barely make out the sidewalk in front of them. Rain pounding against the ground echoes in their ears, the resounding sound in a world of silence. Very few lights are on, very few people are awake, and it feels like the entire world is dead. 

"Hey, kid." A familiar voice causes them to whip around, looking for the source. 

It's that stupid, stupid man; Sans. How Chara hates him now. It was bad enough that he had called Frisk to tattle on them, having their sibling come to pick them up, but now, Sans and Frisk had formed some sort of friendship. They were a team now and it felt like Chara was the enemy that they were working hard to take down. And it hurt. 

"Get lost." Chara hisses at him. 

He's standing under the streetlight behind. "You must really miss that Asriel kid, huh?" 

Chara freezes up. 

"It ain't none of my business, I know that. But Frisk tells me that you go and visit his grave every other week. That's pretty solemn. I'd go as far as to say that's a pretty _grave_ thing to do." He winks. 

Chara keeps walking. 

"Frisk was worried that you didn't come home. Sent me to check on ya." 

"I don't need a babysitter!" Chara yells, turning around, "Get lost, why don't you?" 

"Just keeping ya out of trouble." Sans shrugs, "Speaking of which, this ain't the way home. You aren't planning on running away?"

"Why do you care?" Chara demands. 

"Good question." Sans says, pausing for so long that it doesn't sound like he's going to continue, "Simple answer would be that I don't care, I guess. But that would be a lie. Because I know what you really are: just some kid that got lost down the wrong path." He pauses again, "Also, you're kinda an asshole. But I'm willing to look past that right now." 

Something stirs inside Chara. "Don't you dare pull that crap on me, fool. I'm not easily manipulated!" 

"Jeez, you've got a real problem, kid." Sans shakes his head, "I ain't trying to manipulate you. I'm trying to talk to like adults here. I'm even pretending that I like you just so you don't flip your lid and pull a knife on me or something." 

Chara's hands clench into fists. "Are you asking for a fight?" 

"You aren't even listening to me, huh?" Sans sighs. 

"I'm deaf, asshole." Chara glares at him, "Of course, I'm not listening." 

"Okay..." Sans cracks a smile, "I'm going to step off just because... That deaf joke wasn't actually terrible." He holds his hands up in surrender, "Look, can you just let me walk you back to your apartment so that Frisk will settle? They've been flipping their shit all day about you disappearing into the blue again." 

_"Please."_ Chara scoffs, "As if they'd care where I was." 

Sans looks exasperated. "Just come home, kid. I'm tired of your tough act. We're all tired of it." 

He looks at Chara as if he can see right through them, the sun catching on his bright eyes so that they seem to glint in the light. Chara looks away, folding their arms firmly across their chest. But when Sans slips his jacket around them, slings an arm around their shoulders, and steers them back in the direction of the apartment, they don't push him away straightaway. Because, they don't know, maybe it's nice to have somebody that seems to see through them. Somebody that sees them for who they really are. 

Just like Asriel did.


End file.
